Sinfar

For a long time now I've noticed that a lot of reports fall through or cannot be followed through on because of a simple lack of information or poorly taken screenshots. This form, and the information leading up to it should provide a firm basis for people to send in reports for, and so long as this basic form is followed, will provide the DM's an easy way to keep up to date information for each report. Please read all the information provided below before sending in any reports or your report might be rejected. Save yourself, and us, the hassle please!

If someone is disturbing seriously, right now, in a way that a DM could see it, then first try to contact a DM in game. If there's no DM in game or the DM in game couln't help you / see the offender in action or for in any unsolved problem, make a report as posted here and send it in a private message to the Dungeon Master group.

You may be surprised that there is a proper way to file a report, but the basic fact is - the more organized a report is, and the more information it contains, the better off we are on acting on it. Follow these three relatively simple steps to ensure your report contains all the information a DM could ever need.

Step One: Do You Really Need A Report?

The first thing you need to realize is this report is going to the DM team. Coming to us should be the absolute final step in your dealings with this person. For some things this is easy: someone blatantly breaking a rule, someone trolling in town; but for some it is not. If you are having an argument with someone, or a rough time with a friend do not report them right away. When a DM steps in on a report like that the most common option is to tell the two people to stop contacting each other indefinitely. This means you're cutting off that person for good, no going back. So before you report someone be sure to ask yourself: "Am I 100% sure I want this person to never speak to me again, or get in trouble/potentially be banned?"

One other thing to consider: A reported player usually is not banned straight out unless they're doing something -very- bad. Do not expect a player report to end in a banning, or even to ruin their day. If you are reporting a player out of spite just to get them in trouble, stop right there. You're reporting for the wrong reasons, and likely wasting our time. That can damage your reputation as much as the person you're trying to get at! (Think of it like the little boy that cried wolf - eventually your reports might not be taken seriously! Nobody wants that.)

Step Two: Proper Screenshots

Not chatlogs. Not screenshots of the web client. Not screenshots from skype. Screenshots of the game client open, with the full chat window displayed. One thing to note is, while skype conversations and web client stuff may seem important we cannot do anything with it unless it is in game and on the server. This means if someone is harassing you on skype from the server we cannot stop them or punish them for it on sinfar - you are able to block and ignore people on your own on skype, and if someone is doing something to bother you there - block them. This also counts if you are -only- on the web client. Unless you are in game, being harassed, we cannot do anything. Sorry.

Screenshot examples:

Example 1:


This is a poor screenshot. Some of you may say: "But DM Corruption, why? You can see the harassing tell right there, Miuo is obviously being super mean to you!" - but there's two major problems:

1.) It's edited: Someone could have rearranged this screenshot to change how things look. Sometimes, unscrupulous people will do this to make themselves look better in a situation they might have brought upon themselves.

2.) It doesn't show the entire conversation. See above.

Example 2:


This screenshot is better. Notice it shows the entire chat log, - however, it is still poor. While in this instance the conversation is relatively easy to follow, in longer cases it may become difficult to follow what progressed in the incident. The best option is down below.

Example 3: The Good Example

Image 1:
Image 2:

Notice now both images are labeled as to which is the first and which is the second - and both images are of the FULL WINDOW. Accomplishing this is rather easy and free.

HOW TO UPLOAD IMAGES EASILY:

Step 1: Download GIMP - http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
Gimp is a free to use image manipulation program. Think of it as Microsoft Paint's big brother. It has no ad-ware, no weird stuff, just straight up gimp, and it won't do anything bad to your pc. (Those of you on macs or linux have to find your own stuff, running weird backwater operating systems like you do =P)

Step 2: Open GIMP and Open your IMAGE and take the screenshot.
Navigate to your nwn install folder. In there is a folder called "screenshots". Go back in game, and press the PrtScn button on your keyboard. This will take a screenshot and a file will appear in your screenshots folder likely called something like "sinfar_welcome_0000.tga" this is your screenshot. Drag that file right onto GIMP's open page and it'll open up just fine. That or use File -> Open in GIMP to navigate to the folder and open the image that way.

Either way once you have the file open you have two options:
The most common option is to click file -> Export As, and save the image as a viewable picture. .JPG is the most common here.

Just click the little + next to "Select File Type" to open that bottom window up, and click on JPEG image. After that, just hit the blue circled export button and it will save the file as a .jpg which anyone can view.

Then just upload that .jpg file to any image host of your choice and link it in your report.

The easier method:
Open the image in GIMP. Hit Ctrl + A to select the entire image, then Ctrl + C to copy it. Open up imgur.com in your web browser, and then on the main page hit ctrl + v, then upload it. Link the image from there. This is the method I use.

Step 3: Have all of your information be clear and concise:

The final step is to make sure all the information you provide to the team tells a clear story of what went on from start to finish. If your story jumps around a lot make sure the entire thing is labeled clearly on time frame - so we know what happened, and when it happened. Make sure all of your information is as detailed as you can possibly make it, the more info you have, the better we can help you.

Your Account Name: (only those involved please)
Your Character Name: (only those involved please)
Type of Incident: Rule breaking, griefing/harassment, PvP related, Cheating, Player House Breaking & Entering, Sexual Roleplay Spying, DM Harassment, Red Light Breaking, Other
Time and Date of the Incident: Day, Month, Year - Relative Time (6 PM for example)

Incident Information
How Severe Would You Rate The Incident: Scale of 1 to 10, 1 being barely an annoyance, 10 being something so grievous you would quit the server over it. (A 10 does not mean your report will be taken more seriously, a 1 does not mean we will ignore it)
Who was Involved: List all players involved in the incident. Account names as well if you can.
Who was the offending person: List of all offending players, account names as well please. (These are who you are reporting)
In your own words, what occurred: Be as detailed and coherent as you possibly can. The more you have, the better we can help you.
Place Screenshots Here: Use the img tag please. No TGA's. If you do not have screenshots chances are we cannot do much to help you.
Any other Information: Put anything else here.

Repeat Incidents: If this is a repeat offender, or you have personally had to deal with this person before, please put information regarding it here. Please use this spot -only- for incidents reported using this report form. Prior incidents may not have enough information to be useful if they were not submitted with this form.

Once you are done filling out this form, send it as a PRIVATE MESSAGE to the DM Team. You can do this by writing a new PM, and instead of sending it to a specific person, select the DM Group. Do not post this report in a forum or it will be deleted immediately.

I would just add recommendations:

- Report an incident as soon as possible... Immediately, if possible.

- It is good to report severity 1 incidents... we will probably do nothing but if a few people report the same thing than we will at least talk to this person to make them change their behavior.

- As the opposite, limit your severity 8-10 incidents... there's people that are easier to irritate and reports from those people will be less considered. In general, we will wait to get at least 2 reports from 2 very different people, before considering any report, even when it is a severity 10 and if your reports tend to be alone, you may be marked as someone easily irritable.
This doesn't apply to severity 1-3 incidents (4-7 is a gray zone) and it is also relative to other factors like the number of hours that you played between the reports. Basically, just think twice before reporting a high severity incident... was it really bad, or the person just don't know how to play/talk or you do you have something personal against that person because of an unrelated event?

And now a few things to do report:

- Something that happened on Skype... It is not our business.
- Something that happened on the web client... the web client is in the same category as Skype, if you were in game at the same time then it is fine, just make sure to take the screenshots in game too. In the other way, if someone is annoying you from the web client while you are in game, report it because it is very bad... The web client should be a life saver only. If someone is logging on the web client bother people playing, they will get quickly banned and possibly not only from the web client.
- Something that happened more than 1 week ago.
- Something that happened to another person... only report situations where -you- are the victim.
- As different accounts... always use the same account to make your reports otherwise it may be considered as an attempt make yourself appear as 2 different people.. and it wont work anyway.
- Do not try to make your own justice

And finally: do not ask for updates about your report... this will just make you look like having something personal against that person. You can report them again if you have something new to report, but that's it.
You shouldn't report someone to "get them banned" but only to make them stop their bad behavior. "Trying to get someone banned" is bad.
Reports are dealt with privately, case by case and there's a infinite list of possible consequences, Between a warning and a general ban:
- Sending excuses to the victim or helping the victim to get back what they lost. ( I like those consequences )
- An item or XP or house removal
- A character deletion
- "Ban" from talking to a person or group.
- Ban of an area
- Ban of a player name (they will still be allowed to play anonymously)
- Ban of a specific archipelagos.
And I skipped many...